Zahra; The First Vampire

Little is known of her life prior to her death. Stories often associate her with basket weaving or sewing fabrics to make clothes. Some claim she was a shaman of her people. Or perhaps a witch who provided magical remedies to the ill. There are many stories about her, but they all end in the same way. Zahra becomes the founder of the Spider Cult as we know it as well as the first vampire.
Her story begins over five thousand years ago during a time period that is not terribly well understood. Humans were just beginning to build homes from stone and form larger, more complex civilizations than the tribal lifestyle anthropologists suggest they had prior. According to the legend she lived in one such ever growing town along the black river around where the modern city of Khem-Ra is today. Her people thrived and built themselves into a strong city-state in spite of the harsh wilderness around them, but soon came into conflict with a rival group further up river that controlled the river delta.
The people of the delta were warriors who worshiped the solar eagle Ra’en. They raided Zahra’s people, the people of the spider, constantly for slaves. Zahra’s sister, Amanset, could not stand for this and argued with her husband to form a fighting force and attack the eagle men. He did so, but the battle was a terrible loss. When the eagle men returned next they did not just take a few slaves. They killed every man over the age of 10 and took over half the spider people’s women as slaves.
In her grief Zahra cried out to the Fateweaver, the protector of her people, for help. The spider goddess replied by telling her to assemble eight great cauldrons to receive the weapon they need to exact revenge. She did so, putting what few bronze makers she had to the task. Once completed Zahra lead a great ritual in which the spider goddess supposedly took on a tangible form in the sky and dripped her black venom into the cauldrons, turning the bronze black. Zahra, Amanset, and their six other sisters, Hasina, Ten-Kheta, Iseret, Kasmut, Layla, and Nanu, drank from it and were killed by the potent venom, yet they could still walk and speak. Their souls had been transformed fully and even those who could not wield magic prior found their minds awakened. Yet they had strange and new powers too. Their spirits could reach out from their bodies and strike enemies far away. Even take on the form of a great, dark creature with wings and fly far off to prey on mortal creatures.
And so they did. Zahra and her sisters released their spirits into the sky and flew to the delta where they ravaged the people of the eagle. After their revenge they took over the eagle people too, with Amanset becoming their ruler. The other six vampires went their own way and conquered other peoples, and soon all of the southern continent was ruled by the spider goddess’ children.
Zahra refrained from using her goddess’ power for conquest, however. She instead founded the Spider Cult as an institution and taught the first priests of the other peoples of the spider goddess and how to worship her. She lead everyone in the building of her temples and statues and formed the basis of the Spider Cult as known today.
Zahra would later not take a side in the First Vampire War. A conflict between seven of the eight immortal vampires and their newly forged nations. The instigator was Amanset who had built the largest and most martially powerful city-state out of the people of the eagle. In time Amanset conquered the lands of her sisters, executed Hasina for not surrendering, and formed what is now known as the Immortal Empire in the year 1999NA.
She would go on to conquer Athenia, Veluca, and Estania, as well as a large chunk of the Isles of Tongues and part of the Eastern Continent, creating what was the largest empire to ever exist in history.
The Second Vampire War, beginning in the year 2513NA, was started by Ten-Kheta who was jealous of her sister’s power. The war ended with Ten-Kheta and her ally Iseret killed and much of the land thrown into disrepair.
Finally, the Third Vampire War, starting in the year 3011NA, was started by Zahra herself upon declaring that her sisters, and all vampires who had not dedicated their lives to the temple, were now apostates that had used the goddess’ blessing for their own selfish ends. She used the previous vampire wars as examples of this, as well as the terrible poverty of the people the vampires ruled over.
The Third Vampire War ended with Zahra herself being slain by Amanset, who herself was killed by the newly appointed Exalted Executioner. Layla, long one of Zahra’s closest friends, gave herself up willingly to the cult while Nanu and Kasmut escaped the cult’s wrath. In the end the Immortal Empire fell, and mortal warlords would leap at the opportunity to reform it into the Black Sun Empire after much warfare and power struggling.
It is unknown why Zahra turned on her sisters. Many believe Zahra could see, after thousands of years of Amanset’s brutality, that her vampiric sisters were parasitic and predatory. Entirely selfish and at odds with the teachings of the spider goddess that they were meant to uphold. Others think she did it as a part of her own grab for power that itself failed. Either way Zahra is considered a venerated hero of the Spider Cult. The Cult-Mother herself. And her name will be remembered for all history as one of the most critical and world-defining individuals ever born.